Update on the Oklahoma Three

On April 2, I posted some video of citizen activist Paul Jacob, who was being interviewed by WINA-AM radio host Rob Schilling about the initiative process, term limits, the taxpayers' bill of rights (TABOR), and related issues.

During the interview, Paul spoke about how he and two colleagues were being prosecuted in Oklahoma in a blatantly political fashion.

Now there is an update on the "Oklahoma Three" (as they're known) and what they may be facing in the weeks to come.

From the web site "freepauljacob.com" comes this news:

On July 23, the Oklahoma Three—Paul and his two co-defendants, Rick Carpenter and Susan Johnson—will have a preliminary hearing in Oklahoma City. At the hearing, the government must establish enough evidence to convince a judge to schedule a trial.

Theoretically, at least. In reality, it is rare for a judge to dismiss a case at this stage no matter how skimpy the evidence or twisted the logic of the charge.

A number of citizens and groups in Oklahoma, as well as in neighboring states, will be attending the hearing, which begins at 9:00 am on Wednesday, July 23. If you’d like to attend the hearing or events being held the day before, or have any questions about it, please email Brandon Holmes at bholmes@samadamsalliance.org.

Paul has been inspired by how pro-initiative citizens in Oklahoma are working to reform the petition process. During the recent legislative session, Attorney General Drew Edmondson vigorously lobbied Senate Democrats to block a bill to do nothing more than create a task force to study the state’s chained and neutered initiative process. Foes of direct democracy managed to thwart that proposal. But the issue isn’t going away.

According to a 2007 poll, 92% of Oklahomans support the right of citizen initiative. Yet, thanks to adverse court rulings or the sheer difficulty of the petition process, voters have been able to cast ballots on only two of 23 citizen initiatives filed this decade. (See The Oklahoman’s editorial about the hamstringing of the process.)

Now Oklahomans for Initiative Rights is doing what the legislature has refused to do—launching its own citizen task force to study the state’s petition process and make recommendations for reform.

The Attorney General’s assault against the Oklahoma Three is vindictive and outrageous. But it may also spur some much needed change. Stay tuned.

Many Americans who have used the initiative process to achieve justice will be watching these proceedings in Oklahoma to see if the rule of law is maintained, or if citizen activism just becomes another in a long list of crimes imposed by the political class on the rest of us.

Paul Jacob: Putting Citizens in Charge

Paul Jacob, president of Citizens in Charge and a senior advisor at the Sam Adams Alliance, will be speaking at the University of Virginia tonight at the invitation of Students for Individual Liberty. According to the email announcement of the event:

On Wednesday, April 2, Students for Individual Liberty at the University of Virginia will sponsor an address by Paul Jacob. His address, entitled "Why Government Wants You to Shut Up and Pay Your Taxes: Attacks on Voters," will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Room 222 of Cabell Hall at U.Va. The event is free and open to the public.

Mr. Jacob is a senior advisor to the Sam Adams Institute in Chicago. He has recently been involved in a legal controversy with the state of Oklahoma concerning the rights of citizens to place an initiative on the ballot in Oklahoma. Information about this controversy is available at www.freepauljacob.com.

In anticipation of his speech tonight, Paul was a guest on Rob Schilling's afternoon radio program on WINA-AM in Charlottesville. I was there to get the interview on video.

In Part I, host Rob Schilling introduces his program, mentioning a "pizza and root beer" reception in the lobby of Lane Auditorium that will welcome Albemarle County citizens who will be attending the Board of Supervisors' hearing on the budget and taxes. He then introduces his guest, who begins his own remarks by talking about his experience in the term limits movement in the 1990s.

In Part II, Schilling and Jacob continue the discussion about term limits.

Part III opens up the discussion to other topics, such as eminent domain abuse and the Supreme Court's Kelo decision, as well as citizen initiatives to enact taxpayer bills of rights (TABORs):

In the final segment, Part IV, Jacob talks about the politically-motived prosecution of him and two colleagues who worked on a citizen initiative in Oklahoma. He describes how Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson brought felony charges against him and how the prosecution is designed to silence citizen activists who dare to oppose the interests of elected public officials:

One of the points that Paul makes in the last few minutes of the interview is that, unlike decades past, local political news can now become nationally prominent because, especially, bloggers write about it and draw attention to it. Public officials in Oklahoma can no longer misbehave and assume that citizen activists in Virginia won't hear about it -- or complain about it. So true.

Paul also explains, just before the end of the program, what Virginia voters can do to see that our laws are changed to allow citizen initiative in this state, a privilege enjoyed by voters in 24 other states but not in the Commonwealth. He says that voters should simply insist that politicians -- who hold all the cards now -- promise to pursue a constitutional amendment to permit citizens to initiate legislation that politicians refuse to consider because it adversely affects their (the politicians', not the voters') interests.